Controversies Over Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms Essay

Controversies Over Technology in Early Childhood Classrooms The role of technology in early childhood education is a controversial topic to both teachers and parents. The main concerns of both teachers and parents is the potential benefits for young children’s learning and development.. Supporters and non-supporters agree on the importance of young children’s social, emotional, cognitive and physical development. Supporters feel children should have the opportunity to use the computer as another tool to aide in and encourage their development. Non-supporters agree the computer may be a useful tool for young children but feel many teachers may not be using the computers in the best way to promote a healthy development in the child. They also contend that introducing the computer takes away from important learning experiences such as play and art (NWREL, 2001). School programs are now working on ways to better integrate computers into the classrooms in order to offer the young children the opportunities to develop the necessary skills to grow as students (Gimbert, 2004). The purpose of this research paper is to examine the controversies that surround technology use in early childhood classrooms. Introducing Technology into the Classroom Properly introducing technology into early childhood classrooms is the first and crucial step in producing a new and useful tool for students to use to enhance their learning. Many researchers do not recommend introducing computers to children young than three because they are not developmentally ready ((Haugland, 2000). It is useful to start off introducing a computer to young children in a group setting because it is general information all children need to know. The teacher may begi... ...about the different ways in which young children experience computers in the classroom setting. It included a study done of kindergarteners from about 22,000 different public and private schools and examined they availability of computers to these children. Romeo, G. (2003). Touching the screen: issues related to the use of touch screen technology in early childhood education. British journal of educational technology, 3, 329-339. In this Journal there was a study performed on early childhood students and their reaction to touch screen computers. The results were more negative rather than positive proving that it was more productive to use the mouse and keyboard for young children. Shade, D. (1999). Integrating technology into the early childhood classroom: the case of literacy learning. Information technology in Childhood Education Annual. 1999, 221-254.